All eyes are on Kathryn Mays’ artwork

August 03, 2007|By Michael Jones, Staff Writer

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GAYLORD — Watercolor artist Kathryn Mays doesn’t know where the idea came from to paint a series of portraits focusing only on the eyes of her subjects, but she hopes to eventually complete between 50 and 100 of the paintings — enough for an eventual exhibition.

“I just had the idea in my mind to do eyes. I don’t know where it’s going, I’ve finished seven,” she said of the intriguing but unusual subject matter she has chosen. “Some people says it’s a neat idea, others will go, ‘Oh, really?’ It’s interesting.”

All eyes aside though, Mays will tell you faces in general are very important to her. She honed the art of portraits while working at, of all places, a before and after school child care program at Charlevoix Schools. It was there during the morning and afternoon hours she sketched children’s faces during time-outs served for minor behavior problems. “I felt I became better at doing portraits. The kids thought it was really neat when they got a time-out and I sketched their faces,” she said. “I’ve always been fascinated with faces.”

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In 2004, Mays spent two weeks at a medical clinic in El Salvador with her husband Jonathan, the pastor for Jacob’s Well Church in Gaylord. While Jonathan worked with the clinic’s volunteer doctors providing medical services to the local population, Mays, equipped with art supplies, worked on art projects with children who came to the clinic for treatment or while waiting for their parents.

“I processed the trip through portraits,” Mays said of the expressive faces of the native Indians she painted as they passed through the clinic.

Mays comes to her art honestly — her father was an art teacher at Boyne City Schools. The mother of five majored in art at Eastern Michigan University, with a minor in geography. “Ever since I was little I had art supplies around the house. I got my first easel when I was 2 and painted side-by-side with my dad,” she said of her lifetime of training and working in the arts.

Mays said her first love is watercolors, but she also devotes time to drawing as well as using acrylics; the medium she uses for her haunting series of eye portraits.

After spending 21 years raising a family, putting her art on the “back burner,” as she described it, Mays rekindled her passion for art as her two youngest reached school age. She got back into her art 12 years ago and has devoted herself full time to her work since 2001.

“When I’m painting I kind of zone out. For me art is a mystery, it just seems to happen and that is the fun of it.”